Toyota Teams Up With Tesla For Electric Vehicle Development

Tesla and Toyota have announced that they intend to cooperate on the development of electric vehicles, parts, and production system and engineering support. The two companies intend to form a team of specialists to further those efforts. Additionally, Toyota has agreed to purchase $50 million of Tesla’s common stock issued in a private placement to close immediately subsequent to the closing of Tesla’s currently planned initial public offering.

Tesla originally filed for an initial public offering of up to $100 million back in January and announced that it was planning a new factory, somewhere in California, for its upcoming Model S and next-generation Roadster.

Now, Tesla and Toyota plan to start building a new generation of electric vehicles at the Japanese automaker’s recently shuttered NUMMI plant in Northern California. The site, incidentally, is near Tesla’s own headquarters near Silicon Valley.

While Tesla’s new Model S is due late next year, Toyota’s first electric vehicle isn’t due until around 2012.

Toyota isn’t the only major automaker Tesla has partnered with in the recent past. Germany’s Daimler has also bought a 10 percent stake in Tesla. Under the agreement Daimler will receive batteries and the technical expertise needed to bring an electric car to market quickly. In exchange, Tesla will get an undisclosed payment from Daimler for the technology as well as the aforementioned ten percent stake. Furthermore, Daimler will also help Tesla with the parts and engineering expertise it needs for the Model S.